Students to attend 57th Presidential Inaugural Ceremony

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - It's not everyday someone gets to attend the Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC, but for a group of Christian Community High School students, 2013 is their lucky year.

"I wanted to go on this trip because I actually want to go to an inauguration," said student Raena Anderson. "It's on my bucket list."

Dress rehearsals and preparations for the 57th Presidential Inauguration Ceremony are already underway.

"It's a point of history that we get to see, and many kids don't get to do that," said chaperone Christie Harris. "Seeing it on TV is one thing, but being there and being that close to the President and everything, it's going to be an amazing experience."

Christian Community School has taken groups of students to the past three inaugurations.

"It's a kind of experience that you just can't gt from the history books," said trip coordinator Cheryl Ducray. "It's great for the students, whether it's learning about history or government or the experiecne of being in that historical moment."

But getting to this point in the process was no walk in the park.

"It's an expensive trip," said Harris, "but they worked hard for it and put in the time."

Now that the hard work is over, they have a full schedule ahead.

"Being able to take them to some of the war memorials, they get a concept of what was at stake and the phrase 'Freedom isn't free', and then they go to Arlington National Cemetery and see what that cost is," said Cheryl.

"They get to learn, whether they know that they're learning stuff or not," said Christie, "and that's what's fun about field trips."

And for the students, they realize this trip is monumental.

"It's going to be really cool," said Raena. "It's going to be with friends. It's like history of the country."

Six-hundred-thousand to eight-hundred thousand are expected to attend this year's ceremony on Monday, January 21st. That's nearly one million fewer than when President Obama took the oath of office in 2009.

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